Apex Legends Season 5 is starting later than we thought

(Image credit: Respawn Entertainment)

Respawn Entertainment has confirmed that Apex Legends Season 5 will be starting on May 12, a week later than originally planned. 

The developer confirmed the date through an official blog post in which Design Director, Jason McCord, also details the team’s plans for wrapping up Season 4 with a brand new Limited-Time Mode. 

According to McCord, the decision to push the start date of Season 5 back slightly was driven by a desire to give Apex Legends players a little more time to “grind out their Battle Pass or try and hit that next level of Ranked”.

Next steps

That extra week will also allow for the final two-week event of Season 4: Battle Armor. 

The Battle Armor event will kick off on April 28 and run until May 12, when Season 4 will make way for Season 5. 

Battle Armor will take place on the game’s World’s Edge map with rotations happening every few days which will see players limited to only one armor type. McCord states that in this mode every player will drop into matches with the same armor type as well as a P2020 and will find that, aside from Shield Cells and batteries, no other kind of armor will spawn. 

When the event starts on April 28, those taking part will be limited to White Armor. On May 2, the armor allowed will upgrade to Blue and then to Purple on May 6. Finally, on May 9, players will be restricted to the recently introduced Evo Armor—which grows stronger with damage dealt—until the event ends and Season 5 begins on May 12. 

McCord says that this event is just one way Respawn is planning to experiment with the game’s “core gameplay”, adding that it’s “excited to introduce even more twists in Season 5 and beyond.” 

Other than this tease, it’s not entirely clear what Season 5 will hold for players just yet. New seasons usually mean map changes and a new Legend but Respawn is yet to give official confirmation of what it has up its sleeve. Given the run up to Season 4 of Apex Legends was fairly entertaining and surprising we're sure players are looking forward to seeing things unfold over the next couple of weeks. 

Emma Boyle

Emma Boyle is TechRadar’s ex-Gaming Editor, and is now a content developer and freelance journalist. She has written for magazines and websites including T3, Stuff and The Independent. Emma currently works as a Content Developer in Edinburgh.